Penington Institute features in a Sky News documentary investigating prescription drug overdose deaths in Australia.
The documentary, Painkillers – Australia’s Deadly Epidemic, examines the growing overdose crisis in Australia, and the regulatory loopholes that are putting lives at risk.
Penington Institute CEO John Ryan is featured in the investigation, urging policy reform to address the overdose death toll.
“We’re losing lives from ignorance,” he says. ”The overdose toll is outpacing the population growth in Australia.
“We’ve got a very significant problem that is actually getting worse.”
Fentanyl in Australia
In the documentary, Ryan warns of a potential ‘catastrophe’ in emergency rooms as the high-grade painkiller fentanyl starts to reach Australian communities.
“We’ve seen the absolute catastrophe that it’s created in Canada and the United States. We’ll be the same as them because we haven’t done anything to prepare ourselves for fentanyl,” Ryan says.
“We’re totally unprepared for fentanyl coming into Australia… The biggest concern I have in Australia is the introduction of fentanyl.”
Expert insights from Penington Institute
Along with the documentary, Penington Institute is also featured in the following Sky News articles exploring overdose in Australia:
- ‘Absolute catastrophe’: Australians warned they are ‘totally unprepared’ for a fentanyl epidemic infiltrating the nation from overseas in Sky News documentary
- Widow calls for doctors to be held to account amid alarming rise in erroneous prescriptions, driving wave of accidental drug overdoses, deaths
- Medical regulators accused of putting thousands at risk
- ‘We’re losing lives from ignorance’: Overdose crisis ‘getting worse’ in Australia
Watch the documentary: Painkillers – Australia’s Deadly Epidemic on Sky News (streaming subscription required).
